When the services of employees are no longer required, their employers sometimes help them find a new job. Career transition support can be provided by an internal branch of the HR department or by an external consulting firm. The term “career transition counseling” has been adopted recently as a more positive expression than the older names, redundancy or outplacement counseling. The implication of the new name is that departing employees are moving onto a new career, not just being fired.
What is Career Transition Counseling?
The main two elements of career transition support are helping employees decide what new career to pursue and helping them market themselves effectively to prospective employers. The first element can be accomplished by helping employees think through optional career choices. This process includes a review of their past jobs, what they enjoyed about them and what they did not like in their various jobs. There might also be questionnaires to complete that help employees match their skills and preferences to possible future jobs. The second phase of such counseling deals with how to get that next job and it covers preparing a résumé, interviewing skills, how to apply for advertised jobs and how to approach employers informally.
Service Levels
Services provided by external suppliers have been cut back gradually over the years thanks to competitive pressures and the demands of employers to lower costs. Generally, the amount of support that employees can expect depends on their level in the organization. Senior executives often receive individual counselling over an extended period of time, from a few months to a year if necessary. They also might be given an office on the consulting firm’s premises from which to manage their job search. Secretarial support is also available to type their letters and other correspondence.
Hourly workers, at the other end of the spectrum, may be offered a workshop that covers how to decide what to do next and how to deal effectively with the job market. There is generally no individual counseling provided. In any case, all career transition counseling is just a form of training. Employees at all levels still must find their own jobs.
The Psychological Challenges of Unemployment
Regardless of the reasons for losing a job, employees take it personally and suffer a serious blow to their confidence. To move forward quickly, they need to work at overcoming this setback and convince themselves that they have been given a golden opportunity to move ahead in their careers. Secondly, there is the challenge of maintaining momentum in their job search while being at home alone. It is very easy to do less and less and then find it harder and harder to get motivated. When this happens, confidence at interviews can be very low. It is thus essential to maintain a high level of activity at all times during a job search.
